Jane Addams and Ellsworth Toohey
"I’m reminded of a scene in The Fountainhead, when an idealistic young social worker named Catherine Halsey is talking to her uncle, the intellectual Ellsworth Toohey. Catherine is feeling empty, having given much of herself to help those in need, and she is distressed at how unappreciative and ungrateful the recipients often are. “When I started,” she said, she knew that “one can find true happiness only in dedicating oneself to others.”[2] But over time she came to feel discouraged, tired — and to resent those she helped: “I expect people to be grateful to me,” and so on." Read on for Toohey's reply-
Ellsworth Toohey
11years last week since i went on strike.
Just home from competing in world masters games - 6 races in six days. I'm good at my sport and I say it.
How's that kira?
Mine now in 4th yr of her science degree.
A is A
I think Rand is trying to say Toohey sucks the life out of people.
It occurs to me Catherine became more like those religious people Cheryl tragically met. Catherine was a sympathetic character because Peter kept stringing her along, but in the end she was like those nuns. They didn't want to talk to some strong-minded productive person who was distraught because her husband was not who she thought he was. They wanted to help some pitiable person who they could fancy themselves superior to. I could imagine them saying these things: they resented people; they wanted more gratitude. Miseries were the coin of their realm, Rand would say.
Maybe it's saying Toohey + Peter killed Catherine's spirit just as Jim + those nuns killed Cheryl.
They had a similarly bad b/f / husband, but their reactions were almost opposite. Cheryl was crushed while Catherine seemed content (or maybe numb, hard to say). Maybe Catherine had adopted Toohey’s philosophical view, while Cheryl refused to become like Jim.
What do they mean it doesn't matter? The closest thing I can think of is when I do a volunteer project hoping to meet new people and have fun but I don't enjoy it. I can see, "well at least I set up a bunch of cots for the homeless, so it wasn't a total waste." I don't think this is altruistic thinking on my part, but now I'm questioning that.
"When charitable work begins to degrade their personal lives, I remind them they "give back" selfishly "
Scott Adams has some right-to-the-point language on this that might reach some people who don't get philosophy.
https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...
"I hate the phrase "give back." It assumes you took something to begin with."
It's a tendency of people who really were given a lot. People who clawed their way to success (I'm thinking of my wife) tend to be dismissive of the noting of "giving back". My wife and I have lots of funny stories centered around me learning as a young child it's generally good to help the poor, while she was living with the poor in places I never went.
I completely understand the philosophical issue with the intransitive "give back", implying you owe a debt you never signed up for, like an original sin. If someone believes in that they should come out and say it instead of using a phrase premised on it.